When it comes to weekday meals, we love to make something simple, quick, and tasty – and definitely enough to eat the next day! One of my favorite go-to meals are stir-frys because it incorporates a lot of vegetables and usually a choice of meat. Typically we make a dish like this with rice noodles, similar to our past dishes like Pad See Ew or Pancit . But to change things up a bit this time around, we are using rice cakes, also known as rice ovalettes. Some other common terms are Shanghai rice cakes or Chao Nian Gao. A complete meal with carbs, veggies, and meat all combined together with soy sauce and oyster sauce is what we like to refer to as comfort food. And believe me, it’s comforting to know that you are not spending hours in the kitchen after a long day at work! Just heat up the wok or large pan and throw all the ingredients together for a fabulous Chinese stir-fry dinner without all the excessive oil and fat from the restaurant!

The rice cakes (ovalettes) come packaged either dry or fresh. The one we bought is fresh and vacuum-packed, so it lasts a really long time in the fridge. The texture of these rice cakes is known to be chewy and dense. It actually somewhat reminds me of the Italian gnocchi. It is most popular in stir-frys, but can also be eaten in soup.

Garnish with the green onion and looks like dinner is served! We like to have our dish of Stir Fried Rice Cakes with Rib-eye with hot green tea, just like at the Chinese restaurant. Substitute the rib-eye for any kind of meat you have, like chicken, pork, or shrimp. For the veggies, you can use bell peppers, broccoli, bok-choy, or any other favorable vegetable you prefer. It's a really basic and simple dish to prepare, and you'll have a blast working out your jaw because these rice cakes are a little tough and chewy, which makes the texture so much fun to enjoy! Have fun sprucing up the ingredients and let us know what worked for you. Hope you like our version!

I have tried to cook these rice cakes in soups and stir-fries before. My, that was like 3 years ago!!! I find them too starchy and dense for my liking. Or maybe I have not found a good-quality rice cake. Where did you get yours? ;p

Have not seen rice cakes before, but have no doubt they are there waiting for me to buy them at my local Asian supermarket! I am also a big fan of stir fries for a healthy, easy dinner
.-= Conor @ HoldtheBeef´s last blog ..but our Princess is in another cake! =-.

Hi tigerfish – we got our rice cakes at the Asian supermarket. If you find it, try to get the one that is vacuum packed because it lasts really long. I think most rice cakes are pretty dense and starchy. However, soaking it really helps. Have you tried to order this dish at the restaurant? That’s how it should taste.. if you still don’t like the texture, then it’s probably not for you. Good luck!

Thanks for the recipe! My mom is from Shanghai and I grew up eating this all the time. It was one of our comfort foods when we were kids. When I go home I still ask her to make it for me, LOL. It’s good to see more and more US restaurants serving nian gao.

FYI…my Chinese mom prefers the Korean brands, fresh if you can get it, they’re much better than the Chinese brands. If you can only find the really hard dry ones, you can parboil them in water for a bit until soft, then add it to the wok, then you’re not overcooking the meat and veggies to get the nian gao to soften. Even with the vacuum pack ones we either soak it in hot water or boil them until just barely soft before frying. But be careful, it’s easy to make them too mushy. Nothing makes a Shanghainese mother turn up her nose at restaurant nian gao as when they overcook it!